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Independent bookstores need us!

“The big lesson from this virus is that we are all connected. We need each other. We are a global community – hopefully out of this mess can come a renewed appreciation of our shared humanity.” —Chris Morrow, Northshire Books

Our independent booksellers need us all right now. One way to support booksellers is by donating to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC), here or by phone 866-733-9064. In many cases, buying gift cards for your future book needs is the most supportive action you can take, aside from donations. To support specific shops, we’ve laid out the policies and requests of the stores themselves below with links. As this is an evolving situation, please note that things may change in the coming days.

192 Books For general inquiries, special orders, gift certificates, and signed editions: info@192books.com. You can follow 192 on Instagram for future updates at @192books.

Aeon Bookstore You can buy books through the Aeon instagram (@aeonbooks), through ebay at this link, or through Aeon’s website aeonbookstore.com. Aeon is selling hand painted totes for $20 as well as gift certificates.  To purchase a gift certificate you can Venmo @aeonbookstore with “gift certificate” in the subject line. You can also support Aeon by donating through paypal (aeonbookstore@gmail.com) or Venmo (@aeonbookstore).

Blue Stockings You can support Blue Stockings by signing up to be a sustaining member here or buying a gift certificate here. You can follow them on instagram at @bluestockingsnyc for updates.

Book Culture To place an order or to request a gift card for future purchases, please call Book Culture at (212) 865-1588.You can follow them on instagram at @bookculture for updates.

Better Read Than Dead / Book Row The booksellers of Better Read Than Dead are posting stock on Instagram daily, and are always open to requests or recommendations. They’re hoping to have more comprehensive inventory online soon and have an ebay account here. They ship books for free in the US. You can follow their instagram at @better_read_than_dead_bk. Sign up for their weekly catalogues of notable and special material by emailing betterreadthandeadbooks@gmail.com. To purchase a gift certificate, you can send money to their PayPal (same email as above) or Venmo them @book-row with your name and the subject line “GIFT CERTIFICATE.”

Books Are Magic  You can get a gift card here and they will ship books everywhere if you place an order on their online shop, here. You can follow their instagram at @booksaremagicbk for updates.

Books of Wonder  You can purchase both both online gift cards and in store gift cards available via their website. As of now, they’re still doing direct shipping from the shop. Between 12-6pm, customers in NYC are welcome to call their preferred location (contact list is here) and ask for assistance from a bookseller. They’re happy to make recommendations, help facilitate a phone or web transaction, and then hand off the order at the shop door. You can follow them on social media at @booksofwonder. They’re boosting tons of virtual readings, drawing demos, IG live convos, and resources. They will also be broadcasting their weekly storytimes live. For virtual launches, you can check their events page, here. They’re teaming up with authors they had on the schedule to bring their events live online.

The Center for Fiction You can donate to the Center for Fiction here and shop for books on their site here. For updates, follow them on Instagram at @center4fiction.

Codex To support Codex, you can purchase gift certificates (redeemable forever) via Venmo. Their account is “codexbooks” (last four digits of their phone number associated with the account are “4255”). They are not currently taking orders as a precaution. For updates, you can follow their instagram at @codexbooks.

Community Bookstore / Terrace Books You can purchase a gift certificate here. And you can order from Community and Terrrace by phone (718-783-3075) and online on their website. They are offering free delivery of books ordered on their website by media mail.

Greenlight You can still order books from Greenlight at their online shop, here, and they are still shipping anywhere in the US with free shipping for orders over $100. Some of Greenlight’s book groups will be moved to Zoom! If you would like to join a meeting you can reach out to individual book group hosts by email. Information on that is here. You can follow them on Instagram at @greenlightbklyn.

Mast Books Gift certificates and donations are available on Mast’s website, here. They are auctioning off some great material on ebay, here, and will be adding daily updates to their ABE account, here, which was just launched. Mast Books is very happy to accommodate direct shipping from the shop via email (INFO@mastbooks.com) or phone (646-370-1114) and as of now, on a case by case basis, they are willing to coordinate pick up from the shop. Many other interesting and exciting things are in the works, the best place for updates is their Instagram account which is @mastbooks.

McNally Jackson To support McNally Jackson’s booksellers, who are currently out of work due to the crisis, you can donate to a fund that will be divided equally among them, here. Orders are still available at McNally Jackson, here, and gift cards are available here. Free economy shipping will be provided for gift cards, reader rewards cards, and order over $50.

Molasses Books To support Molasses, you can Venmo any amount to the account @molassesbooks with the words “FUTUREBEER” to have that money put towards drinks at their eventual !!Reopening party!! You can also Venmo @molassesbooks with the word “EMPLOYEE TIPS,” and all money collected will be divided up amongst the four employees who are now out of work. The third way to help out Molasses’s jobless staff, if you want to just offset the cost of this chaos but don’t want a beer, is to Venmo “BLESSING” to @molassesbooks to simply donate to the store to go to rent, bills, etc. You can follow Molasses for updates on Instagram at @molassesbooks.

Stories Bookshop + Storytelling Lab Restocking will become trickier in the coming weeks, so if you’d like to place an order, you can pay special attention to the “Stories Can Change the World” Letterpress Print made by @waspprint Nick Hurd, using never before seen art by his iconic grandfather, Clement Hurd. These were originally created for Stories’s Kickstarter backers who first allowed Stories to open; and their cute Stories logo tote which can serve very nicely as a school supply sack for kids learning from home. Both can be found on their webshop, here, in the merch section. You can follow them on Instagram at @storiesbk.

The Strand You can support the strand by ordering online, here, and by purchasing gift cards, here.

Three Lives Per the governor’s directions, Three Lives will be closing and sending their staff home on the afternoon of Sunday, 3/22. To purchase a gift card from Three Lives, you can email them at info@threelives.com or call them at 212-741-2069.

Topos Everything that they post on Instagram (@toposbookstore) will be available to ship via USPS. Their Instagram is also full of reading recommendations. You can purchase a gift certificate here. You can donate to their staff, who are out of work due to closing their doors during the public health crisis, at this link. Or please feel free to venmo @Topos-Bookstore, phone number ending in x5990. Any little bit helps <3

Unnameable Books The best way to support Unnameable at this time is to buy a gift card, which you can do by sending money to them through Paypal with this email address, unnameablebooks@earthlink.net, or calling them at 718 789 1534. At this time, they are also still accepting orders, which you can also place by calling or emailing them. You can follow their Instagram at @unnameablebooks.

Word Bookstores You can shop by phone during store hours 11AM-6PM (Brooklyn 718-383-0096, Jersey City 201-763-6611) or you can order online anytime, here. You can follow their Instagram at @wordbookstores.Word Up Community Bookshop At this time, you can order books from Word Up online here or donate here. You can follow them for updates on Instagram at @wordupbooks.

You can also always shop at Indie Bound, here, to support independently owned shops from across the country. We are so grateful for our devoted New York booksellers and their commitment to our reading habit!  Take good care.

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